The Effect of Motion Pictures

The influence of television on the impressionable
young has been a subject of concern to
parents, teachers, editorial writers, and social scientists.
But television is not the only
entertainment medium that may have a negative impact on children.
Fifty-some years ago,
movies were the thing, and not everyone was convinced "motion
pictures" were a good thing
for children.

Miss Clara Slade, Psychologist for the
Lincoln Public Schools, offered these words in the 1934
Annual Report of the Nebraska Home Economics Section, now in
the collections of the
Nebraska State Historical Society:

"Motion pictures have become a real
factor in every American home. Recent surveys indicate
that nearly every child of school age sees about one movie a
week and is exposed to that movie
for about two hours. Because of the large number of children
who attend picture shows from
which they gain knowledge, both honest and dishonest, true and
false, it seems fitting that some
control should be exercised over the production for children.

"That good pictures are valuable needs
no defense. They are a source of information: they
reach all the children, those who can read and those who cannot;
they are a great saving in time
because the information can be presented in a very short time
which would take hours to read a
description of in corresponding detail.

"The problem of the pictures is--How
can we secure the good and eliminate the harmful? That
pictures are harmful is just as certain as that they are good.
In a study made recently it was
shown that such social attitudes as honesty, sincerity, truthfulness,
respect for authority, and
self-respect are not shown as often as the undesirable attitudes
such as dishonesty, insincerity,
falsehood, etc.

"In studying the solution of the problem
it was found that in the majority of pictures studied,
wrong acts were either condoned or rewarded; that the love interest
was shown in a majority of
pictures as an abnormal, unwholesome sex problem; that politics
were being corrupted with
gangsters in control; bootleggers, murderers, and gamblers, going
unpunished."

Then as now, parental discretion was advised
to mitigate these "negative influences on character
ideals."

"The Effect of Motion Pictures on
Character Ideals"
p 68, Annual Report of the Nebraska Home Economics Section of
Organized Agriculture for
the year 1934 (Nebraska State Board of Agriculture).